The Rhode Island Supreme Court has tossed out a judge’s decision to restore the disability pension benefits for John Sauro, the embattled former Providence firefighter who in 2011 was caught on camera lifting weights despite a shoulder injury that doctors said prevented him from doing his job.
The high court’s ruling marks a significant legal victory for the city of Providence, whose retirement board voted in 2015 to discontinue Sauro’s $3,900-a-month tax-free accidental disability pension because a doctor declared he is no longer disabled from his work-related injury. The ruling was overturned in Superior Court later that year. “Allowing plaintiff perpetual accidental disability pension benefits under these circumstances runs contrary to the ordinance’s objectives, which are to compensate work-injury-related disabilities and encourage qualified persons who are relieved of those disabilities to return to work,” Supreme Court Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg wrote in the court’s opinion.